


A Whole Array of Nightmares

by TheFreeJoker42



Series: Metsubojinrai.fam [7]
Category: Kamen Rider Zero-One
Genre: Inappropriate touching, Nightmares, from Amatsu Gai, mentions of self harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:49:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28133466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFreeJoker42/pseuds/TheFreeJoker42
Summary: Horobi is afraid of Gai, Ikazuchi is afraid of leaving Horobi alone, and Jin is just afraid.
Series: Metsubojinrai.fam [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1607857
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	A Whole Array of Nightmares

Ikazuchi was never trained to deal with injuries. He was designed to attend to the satellite upon launch, so of course a large degree of maintenance was important, but when it came to individual HumaGear, he was never really expected to work with any for long enough to require that knowledge. And if anything so drastic was to happen in space, so drastic that he’d need to repair himself and couldn’t wait for an engineer to see him… well, they’d just discard his body and load him into a new one. 

And yet, somehow, he’d gotten rather good at it. At this point, it had become second nature to him, picking up Horobi and sitting him down, gently tending to whatever injury he’d acquired that day. 

This one, however, was a much different one than he was used to. Sure it was minor compared to most, but Ikazuchi was only confident he’d be able to repair the superficial damage - the deeper wounds were much more complicated. 

“Horobi, I…” He knew somebody should talk about this, but he wasn’t sure he was the best candidate. He wanted to at the very least try, but… he was afraid that would only make it worse, if the wrong things were said. No, this was far more delicate than he was used to. 

Horobi hadn’t said a word since Ikazuchi found him shivering on the floor with the knife in his hand. And honestly, aside from the usual ‘it’s okay’ ‘you’re safe now’ ‘I’m here’, neither had Ikazuchi. 

But eventually, he bit the bullet. 

“Horobi, I think we should talk about this.” 

Horobi’s eyes were fixed firmly in front of him. Ikazuchi hadn’t been able to get him to make eye contact since finding him, and for the sake of his comfort, he’d given up trying. Horobi was letting Ikazuchi repair his injury, and in that moment, that was the most important thing. The last thing he wanted was to spook Horobi, but now he’d been patched up… 

Still, Horobi didn’t respond. It wasn’t that he was ignoring Ikazuchi, he could see that. He was no longer trying to remain expressionless, and even if he couldn’t find the words to respond, it was still a good start. 

“I don’t want to.” Horobi finally spoke in the softest voice. 

Ikazuchi had to drop the subject then. It was rare Horobi ever voiced a desire to do or not do anything, the word ‘want’ was rarely present in Horobi’s vocabulary, he could hardly go against that now. 

“Okay.” Instead, he wrapped his arms around Horobi and pulled him into a tight hug. “It’s okay.” 

He had a feeling he knew what caused this - the same thing that always causes things. Whenever Horobi broke down and Ikazuchi was left to pick up the pieces, it was always, _always_ , because Amatsu Gai had said something, or done something. 

“Does it still hurt?” 

Horobi shook his head, and leaned into Ikazuchi’s shoulder, closing his eyes. 

“Are you telling the truth?” 

Horobi hesitated, before shaking his head again. 

“Horobi… whatever caused this, can you at least promise that next time, before you go taking a knife to your neck, you’ll come and talk to me first?” 

Horobi stiffened, and gave no verbal or visual indication of an answer, so Ikazuchi tried again. 

“Can you promise you’ll _try_?” 

At that, Horobi nodded. 

“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.” 

“I wasn’t- it’s not like I was…” Horobi hadn’t considered how it might look at the time, but he saw it now, trickles of blood dripping down his wrist, knife embedded in his neck. But at the time, all he could focus on was how much it hurt, and yet how good it felt to see the barcode slowly become unrecognisable. 

“I know. I know.” He sighed, pulling him closer. 

“Amatsu Gai… he… brushed my hair back… and… He just said HumaGear need to display their barcode, he didn't… _say_ anything, or _do_ anything, but… I can't explain why that made me feel… bad. I just… I needed it gone, it hurt to look at.” 

Ikazuchi had to take a deep breath before doing anything else. Every time that _slime_ laid his hand on Horobi, it took great self control for Ikazuchi to not break it. 

“I’m sorry… I wish I could protect you from him. I wish I could tell you everything will be okay, and you’d believe me, and so would I. But…” 

Ikazuchi stopped himself. He couldn’t in all good faith tell Horobi he was ‘always going to be there’, because… well that just wasn’t true. One day, his development would be finished, the Ark would be launched, and… he doubted he’d ever be allowed to see them again. And he was terrified of leaving them alone. 

“I’m here now.” 

“I know.” 

They stayed like this for a lengthy moment, Horobi resting safely in Ikazuchi’s arms, tight enough that anyone who dared come for him would have to pry him from his cold, dead hands. 

“Otou-san.” A quiet voice cried from the doorway. Horobi immediately looked up to find Jin, his unbrushed hair partly in front of his face, his eyes barely open, tightly clutching his hand knitted blanket. He rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. 

“Jin?” 

Jin sniffed, pulling the blanket closer. “I’m scared.” 

Ikazuchi reluctantly loosened his grip as Horobi quickly fell into dad mode, and hurried over to his child, speaking in a soft, yet controlled voice, almost as if the past conversation never happened. 

“You’re scared? What happened?” 

“I had a nightmare…” Jin kept looking behind him as if he was expecting something to creep up on him, and edged further into the room. 

“A nightmare? That _must_ have been scary. Come on, let’s get you back into bed.” 

Jin nodded, and rubbed his eyes again, before reaching out to hold his dad’s hand. “I… I don’t wanna go back there alone.” 

“You won’t be alone, I’ll stay with you.” 

“... Can you stay with me ‘till I fall asleep?”

“Of course, sweetheart. I won’t go anywhere until you’re safely asleep and having the sweetest of dreams.” 

Jin smiled widely, seemingly forgetting his fear for a moment, and latched onto Horobi tightly. “Thanks Otou-san!” 

Horobi bit his lip, holding back a wince. Jin thankfully didn’t seem to notice, but Ikazuchi quickly perked up. 

“Horobi…” Ikazuchi’s eyes darted over to Jin, but he couldn’t just keep quiet. “You have to rest, I’m not done patching you up yet.” 

“Otou-san? Is something wrong?” Jin asked quietly, loosening his hug just a little. But Horobi made up for it by tightly hugging back, ignoring the stinging pain in his neck whenever he moved. 

“... You have nothing to worry about. Your brother is just a little concerned, that’s all.” 

“Horobi, you’re in pain and you’re still bleeding.” Ikazuchi whispered urgently, trying his best to be secretive, though there was just no way to have this conversation without Jin hearing. But Horobi just glared at him, silently pleading for him to stop. 

“... Otou-san… did Nii-san say you were bleeding?” 

“Ah, h-he’s just being a… fussbucket… Let’s get you to bed, shall we?” 

Ikazuchi knew he shouldn’t be talking about this in front of the kid, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the small streaks of blood still dripping down Horobi’s neck. 

“But… Otou-san… Nii-san said you’re hurt…” 

“Why don’t we all just sit down, I’ll finish patching you up, and then you can… go and read the kid a bedtime story, or whatever it is you do?” 

Jin lightened up at the mention of a story, and looked back at Horobi for confirmation, before spotting the blood and shrieking, pulling back. 

“You _are_ hurt!” 

“No, honey, no, it’s nothing, just a scratch.” He tried to reassure his son, but Jin could see it was not _just_ a scratch! 

Jin pouted, with puffed cheeks, and crossed his arms. “But you always say that every time _we_ get hurt we need to rest and stuff!”

“He has a point.” Ikazuchi crossed his arms expectantly, and gestures towards the sofa they’d previously been hugging on.

Horobi was flustered at this point. “But… Jin…” 

Jin pouted more, if that was even possible, and took Horobi hand, and pulled him to the sofa. He plopped him onto the sofa, and wrapped his arms around him, resting on his dad’s lap. 

“I’m not going to bed ‘till you get checked out by Nii-san!” 

“Thank you, Jin.” Ikazuchi said, ruffling Jin’s hair. And Horobi didn’t have a choice but to stay put, and let Ikazuchi tend to him.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still collecting MBJR-related prompts to get me through the holiday period if anyone has anything ^^


End file.
